Asus, Acer Take Currency Hit

Two of Taiwan’s major IT companies have produced quite different results for the first quarter of 2018 – though both were affected by appreciation of the Taiwanese currency.

Asustek Computer, usually known as Asus, announced a nine percent drop in revenue to NT$99 billion (A$4.37 billion) for the quarter ended March. But Asus maintains it saw rising demand in the quarter, and explains that the drop in revenue was largely due to appreciation of the Taiwanese currency.

The company told Taiwan’s Digitimes that it is expecting to launch new notebooks, smartphones, motherboards/graphics cards and gaming products during the second half of 2018. It has also pledged to strengthen its marketing and channel management.

Rival Acer, meanwhile, reported a 1.4 percent rise in revenue during March – but a 2.8pc drop year-on-year for the first quarter.

Revenue from gaming products was up 60pc, while those from Chromebooks and enterprise notebooks “also increased by double-digit percentages”, Acer says.